CEBU City Councilor Paul Labra II has called for an investigation into the operations of previous Colon Night Markets after City Hall records showed that special permit fees, now being collected under the administration of Mayor Nestor Archival, were not collected in past years.
In a privilege speech delivered on Oct. 21, 2025, Labra presented data from the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) showing a sharp increase in the City’s income from the Colon Night Market this year compared to 2023 and 2024.
According to the CTO, the City earned a total of P3.1 million from the Colon Night Market between September and October 2025 alone, comprising P516,000 in arkabala daily vending fees and P2.6 million in special permit fees.
By comparison, the City collected only P417,200 from October to December 2023 and P523,590 from October to December 2024, both from arkabala collections alone.
The CTO explained that while its previous system did not segregate vending data by site, the 2025 figures refer exclusively to the Colon Night Market.
The office also confirmed that the P96,165 recorded under “special permit” in 2024 was not for Colon but for other sites such as the Kamagayan Night Market.
Who benefited?
The CTO confirmed that there was zero collection of special permit fees for the Colon Night Market in 2023 and 2024.
Labra said the findings suggest that while the City collected daily vending fees in previous years, it failed to collect the more substantial special permit fees that should have covered payments for garbage collection, certifications, miscellaneous charges, the organizer’s fee, and the organizer’s business taxes.
“If these special permit fees can be collected now for the Colon Night Market, why weren’t they collected in the previous years? Who benefited from that money, and who should be held accountable for funds that rightfully belonged to the City of Cebu?” Labra asked.
He said his privileged speech was not intended to “criticize or divide,” but rather to uphold transparency and accountability in government.
He emphasized that the matter was not about politics but about good governance.
Under the present setup, each vendor reportedly pays around P6,000 per month in rental fees, roughly equivalent to what vendors used to pay in previous years when collections averaged around P200 per day.
In previous years, the Colon Night Market was managed by private groups, including the Alliance of Energetic Vendors (AEVAI) led by Jayme Alcover Duran and Garbo Asenso Sumbanan Alyansa sa Gugma (Gasa) Board headed by Jonel Matuguina.
Labra urged the Council to conduct an executive session to examine the operations of the previous Colon Night Markets and determine why the City Government failed to collect the required special permit fees.
He also called on Archival to form an ad hoc committee to further investigate the issue.
The proposed executive session would invite representatives from the CTO, the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO), and previous organizers.
“The people of Cebu deserve a government that serves with honesty, governs with consistency, and accounts for every peso entrusted to its care. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?” Labra said./ CAV